USS Mercy (AH-4) - USAT Saratoga

USAT Saratoga

After her requisition from the Ward Line, the steamer was turned over to the Army on 2 June 1917, becoming Army transport USAT Saratoga. She was hurriedly outfitted for troop transport duties and became part of the first group of the first American troop convoy to France during World War I. The convoy set out from Ambrose Light for Brest, France, at daybreak on 14 June 1917. Saratoga was accompanied by fellow Army transport ships Havana, Tenadores, and Pastores, the cruiser Seattle, transport/auxiliary cruiser DeKalb, destroyers Wilkes, Terry, Roe, and converted yacht Corsair.

At 22:15 on 22 June, some 850 nautical miles (1,570 km) from the convoy's intended destination of Brest, Saratoga’s group of the convoy was attacked by submarines. Two torpedoes passed near Havana and two torpedoes straddled DeKalb. No submarine was definitively sighted and the convoy, scattered by the alarm, reformed the next morning. The group, alerted by reports of submarine activity near Brest diverted to Saint-Nazaire and arrived on 25 June.

After sailing back to the United States, Saratoga loaded 1,200 passengers at Hoboken, New Jersey, on 30 July, a hot summer day. In preparation for sailing for France the next day, the transport sailed to an anchorage at Tompkinsville, Staten Island. Among the passengers on board were nurses of the Army's Base Hospital No. 8. To escape the sweltering heat aboard the ship, many of the nurses on board returned to their cabins after lunch and removed their heavy wool uniforms. While at anchor at about 13:30, Saratoga was rammed in the port quarter by Panama of the Panama Steamship Company after her engine room misunderstood a command from the bridge. The force of the impact buckled plating from Saratoga's rail down to the waterline, leaving a 30-foot (9.1 m) hole. Saratoga began to list almost immediately, and the abandon ship signal was given soon after. The passengers, including nurses in various states of undress, reported to their assigned lifeboats and evacuated the ship in an orderly fashion. The close proximity to shore, and the large number of smaller craft in the vicinity, allowed all on board to be rescued without loss of life or injury. Panama had only superficial damage; Saratoga raised anchor and was towed near the Morse Dry Dock & Repair Company where she was allowed to settle in the mud. The erstwhile Saratoga passengers were collected from the various rescue craft and were loaded onto Finland, where they sailed for France on 6 August.